5 Most Important Figures in Church History

This post is titled the 5 most important figures in Church History and will probably be one of the longest in Orchard Hill Church queue history.

To narrow this number to 5 seems a fool’s errand… because it is. That is probably why I was chosen for this blog post. I would liken it to climbing a tree with thousands of branches and attempting to arrive at the top utilizing only five of them.

It is worth mentioning straight out of the gate that no matter how prominent any branch may seem, each branch ultimately gains its strength and stability directly from the vine. No vine, no branches. Therefore, we are merely pausing at 5 of the largest branches on our ascent.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” – John 15:5

Jesus Christ – The True Vine

Jesus does not receive a number. One cannot even consider assembling a list of influential people in church history without Him. Without the name of Jesus, no other name is worth mentioning at all.

“For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” – Romans 11:36

He is the one in whom all things exist, and He possesses the testimony of the Father concerning His unique and eternal sonship.

“For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me.” – John 5:36-37

Our first branch on the vine…

1. The Apostle Paul

In eternal second place on my list comes Paul, formerly known as Saul. I have chosen Paul to represent all the apostles not because he was the most important, but because his writing was the most voluminous of the apostles. He was an Israelite, born in Tarsus, from the tribe of Benjamin, as well as a Roman citizen. He was an astute Jew and studied under Rabbi Gamaliel to learn the law.

As a Pharisee, Paul was zealous for God and a bitter enemy of The Way (Christianity).

We read in Acts 7 that he was present during the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and approved of the execution as well as the persecution of the entire early church. He began “ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women, and committed them in prison.” (Acts 8:3)

But then something dramatic happened. While Paul was traveling to Damascus to arrest more Christians, he had an encounter with the risen Christ. This encounter marked Paul in such a profound way that he converted to Christianity and became an apostle to the Gentiles.

His life as a Christian was marred with hardships such as imprisonments, beatings, and shipwrecks. But he held fast to His faith in Christ. He said in Romans 8:18, “for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

So, he spent the remainder of his life traveling and preaching the gospel. His writings and teachings have influenced millions of Christians and comprise nearly half of the New Testament

Paul was martyred by decapitation under emperor Nero’s command in about AD 65 or 67.

2. Athanasius of Alexandria

Athanasius was the twentieth bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. He is well known for contending for the faith and fighting heresy in the early church. Black Dwarf was the derogatory name his enemies gave him, and he had plenty of enemies. He was exiled five times by four Roman emperors and spent nearly half of his ministry as bishop of Alexandria in exile. But in the end, it was his enemies that were deemed heretics in the church. His grand oral and written defense of Christianity greatly shaped the future of the church.

During his ministry, a man named Arius began teaching that Jesus was a created being and was not the eternal God. When Athanasius caught wind of this false teaching, he condemned the theology and affirmed the deity of Jesus Christ.

Despite Athanasius’s valiant efforts, Arianism continued to spread in the church and caused no small amount of division. Consequently, Emperor Constantine sought to end the debate and convened a council of bishops in Nicaea to decide on the matter. Athanasius attended that council and was one of the lead speakers. He became the principal author of the Nicene Creed, which declared the Son to be “begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.”

But even after the Nicene Creed was affirmed by most of the Council of Nicaea, Arianism continued as more and more bishops accepted it. But Athanasius faithfully and vigorously affirmed the deity of Christ fighting relentlessly against Arianism. His unwavering stance on the truth cost him five exiles from his city and church. It led to the expression Athanasius contra Mundum, or “Athanasius against the world.”  He died in 373, eight years before the Council of Constantinople confirmed the Nicene Creed.

Athanasius was the first to list all 27 books of the New Testament that we have today as “received,” not chosen, by the church through the Spirit.

See also: Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Aristides, and Ignatius of Antioch – to name a few other honorable mentions.

3. Aurelius Augustine (Augustine of Hippo)

Saint Augustine was born in Thagaste, a small Numidian North African village, during the Roman occupation. He was a philosopher and a theologian whose theology and works deeply impacted both the Roman and Protestant church.

Augustine grew up as a pagan and became a believer in 387 under the influence of his Christian mother, Monica. Afterward, he became a priest and a renowned theologian. Throughout his ministry, he made several significant contributions to the church. Some of his most influential writings include Confessions, (a personal account of his life), On the Trinity, City of God, and On the Christian Doctrine.

Augustine was greatly influenced by the works of Virgil, Cicero, and the tight logic of Aristotle. His work would later influence secular philosophers such as Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. Augustine’s writings also strongly affected the ideologies of such church figures as Thomas Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux. Men like Luther and Calvin looked to Augustine for inspiration during the time of the Reformation. Many theologians still look to him as a key source for their own writings. Much of the Reformed doctrine concerning predestination, original sin, and the bondage of the will has been attributed to the work of Augustine.

Augustine also introduced the idea of the visible and invisible church. He also developed the doctrine of a just war theory that is still held as the high standard in modern warfare.

He died of illness in 430. After his death, he was canonized as a Saint and recognized as a Doctor of the Church. His influence on the church is truly immeasurable and many consider him the greatest theological mind of the church besides the Apostle Paul.

4. John Wycliffe and William Tyndale

You had to know I was going to start cheating at some point.

No respectable list would be complete without English theologian, Oxford professor, and scholar, John Wycliffe and English reformer and linguist, William Tyndale. It is not an overstatement to say that because of the temerity and tenacity of men like Wycliffe and Tyndale, you and I have unlimited access to the Scriptures in our own language and THIS is why they make MY list as a couple at #4.

Wycliffe was a student of the Word and believed many teachings of the Roman Catholic Church did not align with the Scriptures. He was highly agitated by the Church’s monopoly of Scriptures and believed every Christian should have a copy of the sacred text in their native tongue. (At the time, The Roman Catholic Church only authorized texts in Latin, and very few people could read them.)

Against vehement opposition from Rome, Wycliffe decided to translate the Latin Vulgate into English. Wycliffe died before it was complete. The Council of Constance posthumously charged him with heresy. They dug out his bones from the holy ground, burned them, and scattered the ashes in a river.

One of Wycliffe’s followers named John Hus continued promoting Wycliffe’s idea of making the Bible accessible to everyone. He even encouraged people to rebel against the tyranny of the Roman Catholic Church. Consequently, the Church burned Hus at the stake, and they used Wycliffe’s manuscript Bibles to kindle the fire.

According to tradition, Hus’s last words were “in 100 years; God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.”

Almost prophetically, approximately 100 years later our next significant figure would play perhaps the most key role in the protestant reformation.

In 1523, William Tyndale sought permission from the Bishop of London to translate the Bible into English. However, his request was denied. Since Tyndale couldn’t find favorable support in England, he moved to the free European cities of Hamburg, Wittenberg, Cologne, and Hamburg. And in July 1525, Tyndale translated the Greek New Testament into English. He then printed six thousand copies and smuggled them to England. But it did not receive universal acclaim.

The Church of England and the English crown were furious at Tyndale’s translation. Bishop Tunstall preached against it and publicly burned copies, while the Archbishop of Canterbury tried to buy all the texts to burn them.

Tyndale continued to hide from the King of England (Henry VIII) and moved to Antwerp. While there, he revised the New Testament translation and began translating the Old Testament into English. But a betrayal prevented Tyndale from finishing his work.

A man named Henry Phillips faked a friendship with Tyndale and turned him over to the authorities in 1535. Tyndale was imprisoned for a year and a half before being charged as a heretic. He was strangled and burned alive on October 6, 1536.

His last words were, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!”

God answered his last prayer. Three years later, King Henry VIII required every church in England to have an English Bible and to make one available to every parishioner.

Tyndale’s work greatly influenced future English translations of the Bible. The King James Version is about 90 percent like Tyndale’s version.

5a. Martin Luther

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany. While Luther became interested in monasticism, his father, Hans, wanted him to be a lawyer. So, Luther attended the University of Erfurt, where he obtained his master’s degree.

One day in 1505, a bolt of lightning nearly struck Luther, knocking him to the ground. He called Saint Anne for help and vowed to become a monk should he survive the storm. Luther survived and made good on his vow. He quit his law studies and moved into an Augustinian monastery.

Luther was a good, but restless monk. As a lawyer, he understood the demand of God’s law, was afraid of his wrath, and did not know how he could escape it. But one day, as he read the epistle of Romans, God opened his eyes, and he understood the gospel for the first time. “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith” This passage from Romans 1 notably marked him, and it became the battle cry of the reformation.

And so, on October 31, 1517, he posted 95 theses addressing his concerns on the door of the All Saints Church at Wittenberg. Luther was only seeking to open a debate with the church in Rome. But his arguments quickly spread throughout Germany and eventually reached Rome. It caused considerable controversy and quickly became about the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.

Consequently, they had Luther appear before an assembly in Germany to recant his views in 1521.

But Luther said, “Unless I am convicted by Scriptures and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other. God, help me! Amen.”

This response enraged the Church, and they excommunicated Luther. He fled before being charged with heresy and hid in Eisenach, Germany. And while there, he wrote the German translation of the Bible.

In 1525, Luther married Katharina von Bora, who was a former nun, and together they had six children. Luther spent the remainder of his life teaching and writing. He also wrote numerous hymns, including one of the great hymns of the church to this day, “A Mighty Fortress.”

Martin Luther died in 1546 and remains one of the most influential figures in Church history. His beliefs and teachings on the authority of Scriptures and salvation by faith alone have been bedrocks of Protestant Theology.

5b. John Calvin

John Calvin was a French theologian, pastor, and leader of the Reformation. His teachings and works, chiefly the Institutes of Christian Religion, played a significant role during the reformation and still influence Christians today.

Calvin grew up in a devout Roman Catholic family. He attended the University of Paris in 1523 to prepare for the priesthood, but then his father decided for him that he would become a lawyer.

A year later, Calvin had to flee Paris because of his association with the reform movement and found a safe haven in Basel where he would fully turn from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism and began to work on The Institutes. This proved a lengthy theological defense of the Reformation that was later expanded from four to six books.

In 1541, the city of Geneva invited him to return. And Calvin agreed to return but with a heavy heart. He spent the remainder of his life there and overworked himself with preaching, teaching, and writing. When people urged him to rest, he replied, “What? Would you have the Lord find me idle when He comes?”

He fell ill and died in 1564.

John Calvin remains one of the most influential theologians in history. His works had so much impact that his system of theology (Calvinism) was named after him.

As a lover of church history, it pains me to leave such a short list. I could easily add a hundred names. Ironically for our context, it was the liberal thinker John Locke who quipped, “With books we stand on the shoulders of giants.” I would contend that as believers, we indeed stand on the shoulders of giants with The Living Word as the firm foundation and the inspired works of the apostles and prophets along the way to lead us in faith and obedience.

Theologian Stephen Nichols writes, “The past enriches our lives in surprising ways. In our past, our family history, we see examples of faithful disciples. We can be encouraged and even inspired by their faithfulness. But far more, we see examples of God’s faithfulness to His people.”